Ketav yosher (Epistle of Justice)

Has he had the temerity to speak perversely against the foundations of the faith and of the Torah, and mocked the words of our sages of blessed memory recorded in the Mishnah and the Gemara, or has he had the effrontery to raise his head in denial of any one of the Thirteen Principles of the Faith?

The man who was speaking with me responded: “But why is my Master bent upon involving himself in matters of such great import as these? If the individual in question has indeed made it clear by his words that his intent is to spurn the customs of Israel, is it not right to exact vengeance upon him and to remove the evil from the midst of the land?”

But I reverted to the theme of my dialogue and enquired of him: “What then is the matter concerning which he has written an allegation with his pen? Has he—Heaven forbid—spurned the fine and correct customs practiced by us, such as the waving around our heads of the live chickens for atonement on the eve of Yom Kippur, the banging on wood at the mention of Haman on Purim, or the eating of the head of a sheep, and cabbages, dates, and herbs on the New Year, or has he permitted the eating of nuts before the day of Hoshana [the last day of Sukkot]? Has he preached to the people that the Almighty takes no delight in the two white hairs that protrude between the hollow rim of the capsule of the phylacteries worn upon the arm and the place of closure? Has he denied (Heaven forbid that one should even mention it!) the mystical notions associated with the waving of the palm branches during Sukkot, or has he mocked those laws that involve apparently trivial actions, but which in fact are of the utmost spiritual significance, such as putting on one’s right shoe first, and wiping one’s hands with a pebble, at any rate after touching a part of one’s body that is generally covered, or one’s head that has just been washed, and such as not passing urine in the public thoroughfare on the Sabbath, or emitting spittle from a high location? If—woe betide—he were to have done any of these things, what you say would be quite correct!

Perhaps he has spoken perversely against the truth of the miracles familiar to all those dwelling in the diaspora, such as those which were performed by our teacher, the master, Rabbi Loew [Maharal], when he invited the Emperor Rudolf to a banquet, and, by invocation of the Divine Name, brought down a castle from heaven, or such as the golem which was fashioned by our teacher, the master, Rabbi Naphtali—may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing—the dust of which still remains hidden away and concealed? Is it perhaps the case that his heart induced him to ascribe deficiencies to the well-known supernatural good-luck charms, and filled his mouth with falsehoods and denials, maintaining that it is impossible to ward off the Evil Eye by means of glowing embers whose flames have become dimmed? If he has sinned in large measure in respect of matters such as these, one may most assuredly not have any mercy upon him and he is not to be saved; his house ought to be burned with fire over his head, and his literary works need to be disposed of by burning.